Hope is rising. But so is hatred. There is still great beauty to behold in our fallen world, but much of it is turning ugly. And there is increasing brutality against the chosen people of God, as well as those who follow the Jewish Messiah. How has it come to this?

Signs of the imminent return of Jesus, as outlined by the Saviour himself, are all around us. Yet secularists and humanists are quick to find some explanation to distract attention from what God is trying to say through the series of natural disasters plaguing our planet of late.

It was CS Lewis who said that pain was God’s ‘megaphone’ to rouse a deaf world.¹ But the term ‘global warming’ was soon coined as a useful diversion from what our Creator is trying to tell us – that is, ‘Get ready, for I am coming soon!’

Wake-Up Calls and Warnings

But it’s man’s problem, and we can fix it, the secularists insist. Of course, there are things we could, and should, do to look after our environment, of which the Lord made us stewards. Everything God made should be treated as sacred, especially life itself. But murderers and rapists are released back into society, and the unborn are even denied the right to live.

It’s time we woke up to the reality that these disasters are wake-up calls to a culture steeped in sin and degradation, as well as a warning of Christ’s soon return, presenting a perfect opportunity for evangelism. The heating up of the planet is not something that can be dealt with by switching to electric cars, refusing to fly and eating only vegetables.

God is trying to tell us he is on his way – and that we’d better get our act together by repenting of our rebellion against him. But Christians will not be thanked for pointing this out; they will in fact be brutally persecuted, as were the early believers in Rome who stood firm in the face of the gross immorality all around them.

Be prepared, brothers and sisters. We too will be turned on by vicious dogs for daring to question the generally accepted mantras of our day.

Environmental disasters are wake-up calls to a culture steeped in sin and degradation, presenting a perfect opportunity for evangelism.

Birth Pangs

As we pray for rain to douse the bushfire inferno in Australia, spare a thought for South Africa (and Zambia) where some are facing an even more precarious future, with the worst drought in over 100 years. The town of Graaff-Reinet hasn’t had a drop of water in five years. Many significant towns in the Eastern Cape, where my family originate, are without any water. It’s a desperate situation. Fortunately, many of the farmers (some of whom I know) are dedicated followers of Jesus and are trusting him through it all.

Graaff-Reinet, by the way, was once a key source of spiritual refreshment, not only for the Cape, but for much of the world, through the ministry of Rev Andrew Murray, whose beautiful Dutch-gabled parsonage is now a museum. I’m aware that there is a very significant body of passionate believers in South Africa, but it’s worth asking if, for many of the current generation (perhaps in the West generally), the Christian faith is treated as something of a museum piece to be admired and cherished, and then forgotten when our weekly visit is over?

Our Lord’s teaching on the Second Coming was triggered by the disciples’ admiration of the Temple’s magnificent beauty (Luke 21:5). But Jesus responded by predicting its disastrous destruction, which happened within a generation.

As for the long-term future, he said things would go from bad to worse in the days leading up to his return with deception, wars, earthquakes and famines – the beginning of birth pains. In other words, the pain would increase in severity and frequency as the day of reckoning approached. Followers of Jesus would be hated and betrayed, and “because of the increase in wickedness”, the love of most would grow cold (Matt 24:12).

Signs of Hope

But amidst all this, Jesus reminds us that the gospel will be preached in all the world. Therein is great hope! Rev Robert Stivey, a retired chartered surveyor, has invested £200,000 of his own savings in re-opening a dozen disused chapels in the South Wales valleys, where a great revival broke out in 1904.

He aims to bring the gospel back to the towns and villages where crime came to a virtual halt through the revival. “I am intent on attracting new fellowships – spreading the gospel and using these chapels, not as museum pieces, but centres of worship. This project is not about me or even the chapels. This is about the Lord.”²

I believe something remarkable is happening, under the radar as it were, rather like the fast-growing underground Church in Iran – like snowdrops, crocuses and daffodils in early spring, hardly noticeable at first.

Amidst all this, Jesus reminds us that the gospel will be preached in all the world. Therein is great hope!

For example, The Entertainer, a successful countrywide chain of Christian-run toy shops, has emerged like a sparkling jewel among the shopping malls. Among the items freely available for Christmas shoppers was an attractive magazine called Hope filled with stories promoting the gospel. One feature focuses on the little-known fact that the hugely successful stage musical Cats – now a movie and based on TS Eliot’s poems about crazy cats – is actually an allegory of the Christian faith.

Author Mike Fulmer claims: “The hidden parallels and symbolism seem to whisper to the subconscious mind of everyone in the audience a message of salvation.”

Decades ago, without realising this, God used a line from the musical’s hit song Memory – “I must think of the new life, and I mustn’t give in” – to raise my spirits at a time when I was actually working on an evangelistic paper called The New Life!

Also under the radar are very encouraging developments in our prisons. Inmates around the country are discovering hope, peace and forgiveness, and are flocking to Bible studies and services. I’ve heard of one prison chaplain who comes back to work on his day off to attend the worship service there because it’s the best and liveliest one in town!

Only the gospel can change society for the better. As the Apostle Paul put it, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come!" (2 Cor 5:17).

References

1 “We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” – CS Lewis in The Problem of Pain.

2 Evangelicals Now, January 2020.